Kansas Police No Longer Allowed To Have Sex With People They Pull Over

Kansas police are going to have to stop having sex with people they pull over for traffic violations, after Governor Jeff Colyer (R) signed a new bill into law on Thursday outlawing sexual relations "during the course of a traffic stop, a custodial interrogation, an interview in connection with an investigation, or while the law enforcement officer has such person detained," according to the Kansas City Star.

Because there's nothing quite like love at first sight...

Prior to the measure, Kansas was one of 33 states where consensual sex between police and an individual they detained was not a crime, according to the star. A similar bill was passed in New York last month specifying that people in police custody are unable to consent to sex.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Cindy Holscher (D) "helps the person who was detained in their neighborhood or stopped for a ticket, that type of thing," she told The Star.

Holscher said she was also moved by a case in New York where a teenager claimed she had been raped by two police officers in the back of their van, but no charges were filed because the officers claimed the sex was consensual and therefore legal.

Kansas law previously said "there shouldn't be sexual relations between police and persons in jail, but it didn't say anything about if they had been stopped on the streets or were in their custody," Holscher said. -The Star

Kansas lawmakers say the new law was long overdue.

"Those of us who have been there for a few years thought it was something that had already been taken care of in the law," said Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, an attorney and member of the Judiciary Committee.

"She [Holscher] called me about this. I said, 'You mean it's not against the law?' She said, 'No, it's not,'" Carmichael said. "I checked with the revisor (of statutes) and it was not specifically against the law in Kansas."

"Most officers are great guys and women who are working hard, but there's always the one," he added.